Slight correction, they were Scots-Irish herders. However, yes. The idea of rule of law wasn't as heavily developed as it was in the North. He quotes one guy as basically saying "America reached democracy too soon." The English institutions were not quite as heavily emphasized there. What didn't hel...

There's one school of thought that the west shouldn't engage, that IS is just going to have to run its course and let everyone get sick of them, as horrible as it sounds, instead of having them gain an external enemy to focus on. Which they'd love, because I think they know this is the case. Thus t...

Interesting. I've seen it around and was wondering if it was worthwhile or a bit fluffy. Wonder what he'd have to say about recent developments like IS and Boko Haram. Well, maybe that was one reason why he was primarily focused on the West. The Middle East never had an Enlightenment or the distinc...

Interesting. I've seen it around and was wondering if it was worthwhile or a bit fluffy. Wonder what he'd have to say about recent developments like IS and Boko Haram. Well, maybe that was one reason why he was primarily focused on the West. The Middle East never had an Enlightenment or the distinc...

Just finished reading this and I have to say that I was impressed. Pinker definitely has an atheist bent in his thinking, but his general explanations for why relative violence in the world has gone down over the last century is pretty compelling. He goes pretty in depth concerning government contro...

Just finished reading this and I have to say that I was impressed. Pinker definitely has an atheist bent in his thinking, but his general explanations for why relative violence in the world has gone down over the last century is pretty compelling. He goes pretty in depth concerning government contro...

Why would that tend to lean more towards virtue ethics? I see virtue and deontic as complementary, with virtue more onthe motivational side and deontic more on the justification side. As you mentioned, virtue used as sole justification tends towards being circular True, though virtue ethics can als...

Why would that tend to lean more towards virtue ethics? I see virtue and deontic as complementary, with virtue more onthe motivational side and deontic more on the justification side. As you mentioned, virtue used as sole justification tends towards being circular True, though virtue ethics can als...

If we define evil solely in terms of 'loss of good' it seems like, for better or for worse, we're going to have trouble distinguishing between active malice and passive callousness. Like, between walking past a drowning man and pushing him in? Maybe that's what evil is, a willful disregard of the g...

If we define evil solely in terms of 'loss of good' it seems like, for better or for worse, we're going to have trouble distinguishing between active malice and passive callousness. Like, between walking past a drowning man and pushing him in? Maybe that's what evil is, a willful disregard of the g...